3 Tips For Reaching Audiences Outside The Trade Show

Are you using your trade show booth to reach people who aren’t even at the show?

Of course, trade shows are a prime opportunity to engage with customers one-on-one, to build relationships with them, and to allow them to touch and feel your products. The connections you make at a trade show can be invaluable.

But not everyone can make it to the show. People might not go because they don’t have time or budget. Or they might be a slightly different audience than what the show targets. Or maybe they just don’t like Las Vegas or convention hall food.

But you can still use your trade show exhibit to reach those people, giving them at least a taste of what the trade show experience is, and building relationships with them along the way.

Here are some ideas how to do that:

Videos

People love videos. They watch them on their computers and phones. They’re a quick and easy way to get information. Your booth can double as a video studio.

Shoot short product demonstrations or booth tours during the show. Give live reports from the show floor. Use the booth as the backdrop for your CEO to give a state of the industry report or other customer-oriented message.

Social Sharing

Social media is, of course, ubiquitous, and you can use this to your advantage by using your exhibit to encourage social posting and sharing. The easiest thing to do is have your own people create and share content from the show, posting photos of products, short video clips, and other content.

But if you can get show attendees to share social posts from your exhibit, that’s even better because it has the potential to reach many more people. One of the easiest ways to do this is provide the means for them to take and share photos. It could be in front of a fun backdrop, with a product or person, or during an activity that takes place in your booth.

Public Relations

This is hardly a new idea, but it’s often overlooked, and it works. With any trade show, there are typically media that cover it. This could range from individual bloggers to established trade media to national broadcast channels.

All of those examples represent an opportunity for you to reach audiences outside the convention center walls. The trick is you need to have “news” -- something new, exciting, unexpected, or unusual to share -- and you have to pitch it to the media at the show.

This is by no means easy, but a good PR consultant should be able to help you garner some coverage at the show.

With all the work that goes into impressing trade show attendees, it’s easy to forget there are many, many more people who aren’t at the show. But taking some steps to reach them can help you increase your exposure and enhance your trade show return on investment.